A Year of Change

Tomorrow morning I leave for hunting, Lori is working away in CA and the boys are both well. Ty and some friends are going to the Bronco game tonight.

Yesterday Tommy called and said Shelly is in hospice? I texted Tasha who is trying to get home from a conference. Shelly is my older stepsister and Tasha is her daughter. She’s only a couple years older than me, maybe 1 1/2. I’ll try her phone in a few minutes as I’m texting with Tasha right now. Guess she had double pneumonia and hasn’t bounced back. Tasha is in France so it’s not easy to get back, ugh. Trying to get ahold of the nurse now. Tasha is trying to get home now as we’ve been texting for the past 30 minutes. Say a prayer.

I’ll stop here for the day, more stuff but I’ll save it for tomorrow. Have a great day, God Bless you all and may God comfort Shelly and Tasha and watch over them.

In 45 minutes I’m taking Lori to the airport and then am off to Aspen for a haircut. We’ve been dealing with some little ants we found in the living room but seem to have got them all. They’re outside and with the weather have been trying to get inside. We cleaned the pantry, where there were none, thankfully, and the rest of the kitchen really well. Looks like we caught them before they became a problem. $100 at Ace Hardware stopped them so far.

We dropped Harley at 11 and she’s having fun and doing well playing with the other dogs. We’re super happy as we didn’t know how she’d do. I called to check on her yesterday afternoon.

Marty’s dad had a stroke in Montana at his assisted living home. We were almost heading out today for Montana to see him but he seems to be doing ok so Marty will probably go up after were through hunting.

The boys are fine and working hard. We all went to James last night for an hour and a half, fun time. I need to get in the shower so time to go. It’s weird without Harley here. Glad we now have a place to board her so Lori and I can take some trips.

Make it a great day and God Bless.

Tonight we have a party in Aspen. Not sure if we’re going to make it. I’m heading back to the range again today, I think around noon. I also need to start getting my gear laid out although I have everything I need, and it’s all compartmentalized in storage tubs. I decided we’d drive most of the way Sunday and go all the way to Pocatello Idaho. That’s about 9 hours. Then Monday morning we only have about an hour to go before loading up the horses and packing into camp.

I thought I’d see Ty yesterday, but he had some block party for school. I bought him an I-pad and arranged for him to go pick it up at Best Buy in Belmar. Jag is doing well and had an interview with the CEO of Walker Dunlop which is one of the top commercial real estate investment firms in the World. Guess it went well. He has half a dozen interviews set up. Who wouldn’t want a smart, personable kid who is fluent in Mandarin and by the end of the school year, will be in French also. By the way, his 26 year old French teacher is smoking hot. Wonder if she’ll be joining us for Thanksgiving, ha.

Lori leaves in the morning and Harley goes to the Pet Center today. We wanted to take her when we can both drop her off as it’ll be easier. Time to get moving so we can get to the gym. Hope all’s well, stay safe, save your money and get ready for higher prices and huge shortages this winter. Europe is forecasting energy shortages, unbelievable. Get prepared now, God Bless.

Watching the news last night, it says carjackings are up 5000% all over the Country. On top of that, 80% are by criminals that are armed. Of course all these guns are stolen, but I’m sure the govt. will say we need new gun laws because of this. Gas stations and liquor stores are where it happens most often. Be careful wherever you are. Store, restaurants and any other parking lot are places to be careful. Be especially careful at banks and atm’s. Attackers are as young as 11, wow.

I’m off to Denver for a quick turn after Fed Ex arrives this morning. Lori is working in Frisco today so we’ll both be home around dinner time. Harley did really well on our dry run to the vet. She played and had treats with the girls and now wants to go everywhere in the truck.

Ty had a big concert last night and Jag is trying to get a parking spot close to his apartment. Guess some dogs above him have been barking for the past couple days. They both like their classes. Dixie was confused yesterday thinking someone was having a baby and that she was supposed to go help them. Then the phones were off in the entire building, ugh. Hope they’re back up today.

That’s it for the day, time to get moving. Make it a great day, God Bless.

Both boys had their first day of class and all went well. Ty enjoyed his classes and Jag did too. Jag told me he came out of one class and saw two kids fighting and rolling around on the ground. He said he just watched for 30 seconds or so before shaking his head and walking away. Must have been freshman, ha.

I ran down to Denver to drop Ty’s computer and some clothes and gave him the last cash in my pocket, $144. I then stopped at the dry cleaner and headed home.

This morning we’re running Harley to the vet for a dry run just to familiarize her with the place before she goes there on Thursday for five days. Hope it goes well. We’re taking some treats and her ball.

I have a conference call at 10 so it’ll be a busy morning. The house is pretty clean, at least the living room and kitchen as the boys are not here to mess it up! That’s it, time to get moving, be well, stay safe and make it a great day, God Bless.

Lori and I remember the kids first day of school some 15 years ago or so. I think we had a party almost every year they started school. Today both boys are in college. Hard to believe when you really think about it. Best of luck to both of them.

Yesterday after the gym and some work around here, Marty and I hit the range. Afterwards Lori made us a great dinner and then Marty and I washed the entire outside windows on the house. He used to wash windows in college and showed me the trick. I can’t believe what a difference it makes. They’re so clear it’s like they aren’t even there. It’s been a good year since they were washed, and it cost us at least $500 last time. We knocked out the outside in about 30 minutes. A big thank you to Marty.

Around 9pm my phone rang, and a friend called to tell me our close friend of 20 years, killed himself yesterday. Eric was the son of the original CFO of Microsoft. I’ve talked about him before as Eric was an eccentric guy who raced vintage cars in Europe and traveled the World taking pictures of various places. He was socially awkward but a great guy. He recently sold his place in downtown Vail for $20 million. He told me he was thinking of moving to London for a while. We were sort of shocked but that was Eric. I was thinking of him yesterday as I saw a book on Porsche 911’s when in a store with Lori and it made me think of him. Eric had an extensive library of books on cars as he loved them, and I have a few that he loaned me. He collected Ferrari’s, Porsches’, Alfa Romero’s, and more. They were spread all around the Country in different storage facilities. I won’t go into details as it doesn’t matter but it’s so sad. His dad, John is flying in today. We were talking the past couple years about taking his dads plane and taking a trip to Europe. This is not just a plane but a commercial airliner, I think it’s a Boeing 757. Wish we would have known how he was struggling as we all would have reached out. I did text him a couple weeks ago but it was normal not to hear from him for a month or so. May God Bless him and take care of him and provide him peace.

Make it a great day and cherish life. No matter how bad things are, they aren’t that bad! I promise. God Bless.

Lori is on a mission. Yesterday she cleaned the basement from top to bottom. Not just a quick pick-up and vacuum but a deep clean. She stripped the couch cushions and washed them, scrubbed the bathroom and hit every single inch of the room to make it look brand new. She also spent time upstairs and in the laundry room, as well as the living room too. Lots still to do but things always get done one step at a time.

It’s going to be a busy week. We decided to try to board Harley at the vet when we’re both gone. We’re going to take her by tomorrow just for a visit with a bunch of treats and a walk through and then leave and come home, just to get her comfortable with going. Hope that works! This will be much better so when we want to go to Hawaii or someplace, we can just board her.

Last night we received a call from Audi at 10:45 pm saying they had an Audi alert and were calling to make sure the car and driver were ok. I talked with both boys and they’re fine so we’re not sure what’s going on. Could be a scam.

Cloudy and rainy a bit today. Marty and I are going to try to hit the range today after he shows a guy from Denver a couple houses. Nice and foggy outside. Looks really cool.

Both boys classes start tomorrow. Excited for them both. Time to get moving, we’re headed to the gym, of course. Make it a great Sunday, God Bless.

The other night I was at cigar night and one of the guys who was there met Jag and Ty at James’s birthday bbq. His family was one of the founding families of Vail and Ben (that’s his name) couldn’t stop going on about how great both our boys were. We as parents of course are super proud of both of them. They’ll both make a difference in this World in a good way. That’s all you can hope for, is that your kids make the World a better place than it was before they were here. Turn on tv today and you’ll see countless examples of kids that unfortunately do the opposite.

Yesterday the boys hung out with Tom as I said. Glad they spent some time with him. Ty went to bed really early as he had a late night the night before at a concert. They both need to rest up today and tomorrow as classes start Monday. They’ll both do great.

Lori was up at 5;30 this morning and started cleaning. We’re headed to the gym in 15 minutes and then will clean some more for most of the day. Football tonight, whoo hoo. Lori closed on Dixie’s house yesterday. It’s bittersweet for her of course but everyone we know, including those in real estate, said do whatever you have to do to get the deal closed. There’s been a 20% drop in prices in the last six months alone and California is worse than that. She held her ground on a few things the buyers requested as she of course would have liked not to have to sell. Same with mom’s house. It would have been great to have it just sit there and have it forever but that’s not practical. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

Time to go, another day awaits. Enjoy, God Bless.

Yesterday after a quick trip to Denver to have a mole cut out off my leg for the second time, we made a few other stops before heading home. Thankfully after a biopsy 2 weeks earlier, it wasn’t anything bad like melanoma but just what they call an irregular mole. They did dig it out a little deeper than when they shaved it for the biopsy. Libby (our doc) said the margins were clear meaning they could plainly see where it stopped so instead of a big cut and stiches, she just shaved it a little deeper with some sort of scalpel and told me to keep Aquafor and a band aid on it for the next week or so. Guess at our age (Tommy, Robin, Robert, Lori, and anyone else reading this, etc.) we need to keep an eye on our skin for weird looking moles. I feel stupid as I knew I had this little one for years but never thought twice about it. Our generation always laid out in the sun and all of us had a sunburn more than once I’m sure. Libby also said she’s had a patient as young as 10 years old with melanoma, wow. We’re having both boys checked in the next couple months for good measure.

Ty’s doing well and today will meet Jagger at Tommy’s as Tommy said Ty could just park his car at his house instead of bringing it all the way home. That way he can get it when he needs to drive up and come home. Super nice and thankful to Tom for the offer. Jag will drive Ty back down to school after they hang out with Uncle Tommy.

Lori is making pork green chili. We’re going to the gym and then will start cleaning around here. Sure is nice and beautiful up here. I think today Dixie’s house is closing in California. If all goes well, timing is good as the housing market is tanking nationwide. Lori signed papers a few days ago and the estate sale is this weekend., Next week Lori is going out to meet the moving truck for the stuff she’s bringing back. A week from Sunday I’m off hunting to Idaho.

Time to get moving, make it a great day, stay safe, and God Bless.

Yesterday Ty had orientation and met with his advisor and after all that, went to Best Buy for a new phone! There goes another $1000 we hadn’t planned for. At 9:30 this morning I’m having a mole cut off my leg and then have to pick up some samples before heading up the hill. Ty will meet us at the dermatologist and then Lori will take him back to school before driving his car up the hill as there’s no parking at school available.

I managed to somehow find time to clean up the mud room. I had a lot of work yesterday too. Lori made it home around 6.

Apparently every taxpayer in Colorado is getting a Tabor refund check. Tommy keeps asking if we received ours. We haven’t as of yet. Not sure why? We paid taxes! Where’s our free money? The news just said banks are putting holds on these checks when people deposit them. Guess they don’t think the government is good for it, ha.

Time to get going. We need to leave in a little less than an hour. Hope all’s well, make it a great day and God Bless.